› added 4 years ago

70

TIL about Bruce Murray. A South African signmaker, in 2012, he inherited 120,000 acres of land and a dutchy in Scotland. He is now the commander of the only legal private army in Europe, the Atholl Highlanders.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

LQ6AP TIL on rare occasions, legal cases will be against objects rather than persons, such as in the case of "United States v. Article Consisting of 50,000 Cardboard Boxes More or Less, Each Containing One Pair of Clacker Balls !
GYrv4 TIL After reviewing 50 years of literature from 1947 to 1997, Salman Rushdie concluded that Indian writers writing in English is proving to be a stronger and more important body of work than most of what has been produced in the 16 'official languages' of India
LkapP TIL Infection with a particular parasite (T. gondii) reduces general anxiety and risk aversion in rodents while increasing exploratory behaviour, causing them to not only no longer avoid areas with cat scents, but even to be attracted to them.
rm9x TIL that in 1987, 7 million American children simply vanished. The reason? The IRS started requiring the Social Security Numbers of dependents on tax forms
kOykg TIL in 1984 a pair of brothers were surprised when the fictitious, “Johnny Klomberg”, they made up for a Baskin Robbins free birthday ice cream list, received a Selective Service notice by mail a few years later reminding “Johnny” that he was almost 18, and it was time to register for the draft.